One last blog about Venus Retrograde. First, an update. While I know that thousands of people are dealing with the financial chaos of the pandemic, I’ve only had one very mild instance but it’s a good example of Venus Retrograde so I’ll share it. My banker called me. That sounds impressive but I think this was just part of the bank’s general “treat customers as clients" attitude. Anyway, she wanted to review my retirement plans with, of course, a view to offering me some better options that would make money for the bank. It didn’t cost me anything so I talked with her. As it turned out, my plan is perfectly fine for me. I had an opportunity to re-evaluate it and decide that absolutely no changes are needed.
Thinking of banks and money, and considering the pandemic, I wanted to address the side of Venus Retrograde that has to do with re-examining values and priorities, the side that puts us, as individuals, communities, and nations, between many rocks and many hard places, the side of Venus that often brings us to the horns of an either/or dilemma.
These days, our hearts go out to all the people with small businesses, operating on very tight margins. For example, one of my clients runs a venue where people hold special events. With customers canceling right and left (as she knows they should), she is being forced to rapidly re-tool to discover ways to run virtual events. This involves learning a whole new technological skill set, envisioning different types of events, and figuring out how to market them. And the clock is ticking as her bank balance goes down. Another client is a hairdresser operating from week-to-week with hardly any savings. Restaurant owners and staff are holding their breaths. Many people are simply out of luck or out of a job and uncertain about how fast unemployment will be approved or arrive. For all of these people, we want the world to return to normalcy.
At the same time, we know that “it’s not over yet.” The evidence of science, not to mention astrology, indicates that it’s just too soon to safely relax social distancing and to begin gathering in groups. Some states and cities have “opened up” only to discover that their COVID-19 numbers are spiking again, quite immediately. The last time we faced a pandemic of this magnitude was in 1918-19, right after World War I. 20-40 million died and children skipped rope to the rhyme:
I had a little bird,
Its name was Enza.
I opened the window,
And in-flu-enza.
Read this https://virus.stanford.edu/uda/ to see the similarities between then and now.
According to Johns Hopkins (https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html), at the time of this writing, we are at 5,282,370 confirmed cases, worldwide, with 340, 653 deaths. Hopefully, we have learned enough in the last 100 years to stop the spread of the virus before we get into millions of deaths. But the numbers are already sobering. Lives are at stake.
So, we are on the horns of a Venus dilemma: it seems that we can either reclaim financial security or we can save lives. This brings all of our priorities and values into question. In fact, during Venus Retrograde, people often feel stuck with having to choose the “lesser of two evils” or to make some other impossible choice.
At an individual level, I can say that, with Venus, it’s often about creatively moving from an either/or mentality to a both/and paradigm. Therefore, as the need for social distancing might become the new normal instead of just a phase, the concomitant need for both/and solutions is intensified. Thankfully, some individuals, businesses, and organizations are finding truly innovative ways to keep business going while still protecting lives. And, ultimately, the best solutions are likely to emerge from grass roots efforts. Who knows what we might come up with – if we use Venus Retrograde to consider ways to balance economic priorities with the value of human life in a holistic manner?
For a PDF of this blog, go here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kQS8sDNqGwaDqataug0Hhi21sjCWF_zd/view?usp=sharing